PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte announced Thursday, March 21, the "permanent" termination of peace negotiations between his administration and the communist movement.
Duterte made the announcement during the celebration of the Philippine Army's 122nd founding anniversary held in Taguig City.
Speaking before the troops, the President said he was no longer keen to forge a peace deal with the communist insurgents.
Duterte told the communists that the next peace negotiations may happen under the leadership of his successor.
"I am officially announcing the permanent termination of our talks between the government panel and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)," the Chief Executive said.
"I would like to announce that I am no longer entertaining any interventions or maybe persuasions in this democratic state of the Republic of the Philippines. My sense is that you can maybe talk to the next president of this Republic one day," he added.
Duterte made the remark three days after the government peace panel negotiating with the communists' political armed wing, the National Democratic Front, had been dissolved, since the peace dialogue was officially scrapped in November 2017.
Duterte, through a proclamation signed in November 2017, officially terminated his administration's peace negotiations with the communists, after the CPP's armed wing, the New People's Army, launched a series of attacks against the state forces despite the ongoing talks.
Earlier Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo explained that the appointments of government peace panel members were terminated to pave the way for the creation of committees that will engage in localized peace deals.
In December 2018, Duterte signed an executive order, instructing the national task force tasked to end local communism to develop measures enabling local chief executives and directing local peace bodies to conduct local peace talks with the communists.
But in his latest speech, the President said he wanted to "finish the war" with the communists in his last three years in office.
"May these gains inspire you, our valiant soldiers, to never waiver in your commitment to perform your duties, intensify our focused military operations against communist, terrorist group so that alongside, our civilian military operations, we may persuade more of their members to surrender and return to the fold of the law," Duterte said.
"It is indeed very important to engage stakeholders and communities in combating insurgency and preventing the spread of extremists' ideologies, and I believe empowering indigenous peoples among others, in this regard, is the key to this fight," he added. (SunStar Philippines)